Changes
by Sephiroth M. Elmdor
Summary: So many changes... so little time. This is a story on how two people saw their worlds change, little by little, by each other and their realization that they were meant to be together. Set in Season 3, post Santa in the Slush. Rated M for future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Dr. Temperance Brennan, head forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institute and best-selling author, was perplexed. There was single, long-stemmed rose lying on top of her table. It was seven o'clock in the morning and she had just arrived at her office. When she opened the lights and walked towards her desk, she just found it there, perched on top of her table, pristine, as if it were picked and placed there only recently. And this was the strange thing, not many people would have had access to her office, especially this early in the morning. And therefore, she logically concluded that this person either worked for the Jeffersonian, who had access to her office or it was the janitor.

She was sure it wasn't the janitor as soon as he exhibited confusion on how a rose could have gotten into her room, as he didn't see anyone aside from the usual early-bird lab technicians. She then proceeded to subtly question those technicians as well, but to no avail. They also had not seen or heard anything from the moment they arrived and swore that they did not have access to Dr. Brennan's office, much less be able to place a rose on top of her desk. So she was sitting in her smooth, leather office chair, twirling the rose in with her fingers, once again coming up with no explanation as to the appearance of the flower on her desk.

It was half past seven already and she was no closer to finding an answer as she was half an hour ago. Therefore she proceeded to just put the rose in her desk drawer, still undecided on whether to take it home with her or place a vase in her office and put it there or just throw it into the garbage bin. She was unsure because of the unknown nature of the sender. It might have been a stalker or a psycho, she didn't know. There was no card or note to indicate even an inkling of where it had come from. It might have been from somebody she knew, and that was why she hadn't chucked it into the garbage bin quite just yet.

It was about an hour later that Booth came into her office and laid down a manila folder in front of her. "We have a case, Bones. A body was found dumped in a creek just a few miles from here. Grab your coat and let's go." Seeley Booth was always somewhat of a puzzle to her. Her fondness and care for him had grown throughout the years of their partnership despite the fact that they had a difference of opinion on a great many things. They disagreed on marriage, children, chivalry, sex and a host of other different things, but in spite of all that, they remained good friends, good partners. They constantly bickered over things, from the mundane to the serious, and she found that she liked that. He was honest and was willing to express his own opinion while, not quite agreeing, but respecting hers.

In reality, she had never met a man quite like him, a good father, one the likes of she had never had. He was a good investigator, willing to go to great lengths to catch the criminals that they had faced. He was a good friend, taking her out to that small diner for lunch or dinner and just talking. He was there for her through the good and the bad, through her worst and her best. And she was thankful, maybe not to God like Booth would be, but she was thankful all the same, that he was part of her life.

"Alright," she replied and she went to grab her coat off the rack near the door and followed her partner down to the parking lot and into the parked black FBI standard-issue SUV. He started up the car and headed on out to the open street and into the main thoroughfare. He was driving through the highway when she had a sudden urge to tell him about the rose she found this morning. She didn't know what the rationale was or how it would help her find where the rose came from, but all the same she, for some inexplicable reason, wanted to tell him.

"This morning, when I entered my office, I found a rose in my office," she stated simply. He stared at her with a questioning look. "Do you know who sent it?" She shook her head, "No, I tried to find out who it was, but the janitor and the lab techs that were here early this morning said that they didn't put the rose on my desk nor did they see or hear anything this morning indicative as to who this mystery person is." She crossed her arms, forcing the growing irritation down. She hated not knowing things, she had always taken pride in her intelligence, and it enabled her to be where she was and to do what she was doing.

"Well, Bones, I'm pretty sure you'll find out eventually, you always do." He said with a little pride mixed in his voice and this warmed her body. It was always sounded better when Booth uttered those words, compared to anybody else. She didn't know why, but his reassurance always made her day, and today was no different. "I hope so," but she wasn't that sure. She didn't even know from which florist the flower was from, or if it even came from a florist.

She stayed silent for the rest of the trip, choosing to look out the window and at the passing scenery. The trees and buildings all sped past as she started to think about her partner again. In the nearly three year time that they have worked together, a lot of things had changed. Even she could admit to herself that she had softened, she wasn't nearly as cold and clinical as she was when she first started working with Booth and she kind of liked it. Although she was still sure she wasn't a "heart" person, as Booth would term it. She was better with people now, than she was back then.

However, she was exponentially better at one thing since she and Booth had worked together, and that was her partner himself. At first, she was just a squint and he was the special agent, no more, no less. Soon it evolved from that to becoming friends and eventually having, "a symbiotic relationship," as Booth usually likes to say. However, there was always something else, hovering in the background. A feeling she would get sometimes, one she couldn't understand and so she tucked it away, far in the back of her mind. She got that feeling when Sully asked her to go away with him to go sailing, she got that feeling when she was trapped underground with Hodgins and felt she was about to die, she got that feeling when they had kissed in Christmas beneath the mistletoe, and she felt it now, when she was thinking about him and what their relationship meant to her.

When had this change occurred, she wondered. It seemed to be a gradual process. From all the small gestures to the late-night takeouts to the lunches and dinners to the cases that they had solved, their partnership had become more than the typical one, but into something that she could not pin down. It was baffling truly, because the emotions that were churning inside of her were something that was foreign. She had never felt anything like it before and since she had no point of reference to compare it to, she didn't know what it was.

Throughout the many men she had had a relationship with, she had felt varying levels of emotion with them. She might have constantly reiterated to Booth that sex was a biological component of life, but she didn't altogether dismiss the emotional part of the relationship. With her professor, it was more like admiration, a sense of adoration that eventually fuelled that physical relationship with him. With Sully, she felt a fondness and care for him. She felt a genuine attachment, something beyond the physical that was beneath the surface of their relationship and she might have been able to open up to him, if he had not quit the FBI and gone off on his sailing escapade.

But this was different. She had no physical relationship with Booth. In fact, she had no relationship at all with him aside from being partners. And yet, that by itself, felt irrevocably hollow to her mind. This was something more, she thought and yet less at the same time. Their actions spoke louder than words. Through their actions, they have shown care for each other that transcend the care that two partners have for each other. She didn't know how Booth felt about it, but her care for him rivaled the care that she had for her father and brother, her only family. But instead of being disconcerted, she was actually warmed by that fact. It made her smile, and Booth noticed this and pressed her upon it.

"Why are you smiling like that, Bones?" He asked. "Smiling like… what?" She tilted her head to the side, as if waiting for his answer. "You know… like how you smile when you see your father or when you see Russ and the girls." She was unsure of how to reply. They had always told each other the truth and laid out their feelings to bare, but she felt that this wasn't the right time nor the right place for such a discussion.

"Nothing much, as you said, I was thinking about my father and brother." She hoped that that would get him off her case. She was wrong. "No, it's something different. I just have this feeling that you were thinking of something… or someone." It was strange to her how he could always tell what she was thinking, how much in tune he was to her. Sometimes it scared her, but most of the time, it comforted her, that there was someone who could understand her, why she needed to be what she was and why she was that way. "It's nothing, Booth. I was just thinking… it doesn't mean anything." Booth opened his mouth, as if to say something, but immediately closed it and nodded his assent. He would not pry if she wasn't going to tell and Brennan was grateful for that.

Booth eventually exited the main highway and drove along the main streets. She surmised that it wouldn't be long before they would reach their destination. She decided that she would ask Booth whether or not he had also seen and felt the changes that were going on around them. "Booth, have you noticed… the changes that have occurred around us since we began working as partners?" He briefly glanced at her and then turned his head back to the road, staying silent for a few moments before answering. "Of course things have changed Bones. Zach wears a suit now, Angela and Hodgins are together, Cam came on board and we're both seeing a shrink. I think that should show you how much has changed." She nodded and agreed with him on all those points. All of them had changed, but she didn't get the answer that she was looking for, the answer that she wanted to hear and so she pressed on.

"Sure, all of them have changed. It's natural that they would. Anthropologically speaking, people are always changing throughout time, even their bones do. But what I mean is, did you notice the changes that happened… are happening to… us." That threw him up in a loop and he was surprised as he stared at her, whilst watching the road at the same time with fleeting glances. His eyes conveyed surprise… and a little fear. "Us…Bones? What do you mean by us?" She gave him a look, the look that conveyed the utter obviousness of the question and why he was trying to evade answering it. He sighed and raked his free hand over his hair. "Of course I've noticed the changes in us, Bones. I'm not blind or stupid. We spend a lot more time together, we've opened up to each other more and we are part of each other's lives more. And it's not just that, you've changed. You aren't the same Temperance Brennan whom I first met. You're a little more… human now, more like a person, you know? And you don't mind me calling you Bones anymore."

She smiled at that last statement. He was right. She didn't mind him calling her that once atrocious nickname anymore. In fact, she found it quite endearing, as he was the only one who called her, "Bones". What he had stated were all very valid points and she was glad that he noticed the changes in them as well. And he was also correct in that they were more and more part of each other's lives than when they had first met. In fact, when she first started her partnership with Booth, she couldn't imagine that they would be in this kind of situation. She thought that they would solve cases and stay out of each other's personal lives. She found it heartening how things had changed, and if she might add, for the better.

"Why'd you ask so suddenly, Bones? Something wrong, something to do with that something that you were thinking about a while ago?" She didn't know what to reply. Why had she asked him and why was she thinking about it herself? The truth was she didn't know. It just popped into her mind all of sudden, maybe because of that rose she received this morning. But she knew that she needed to give him an answer. "I just thought it would be good to reflect on the changes in our lives. It's like an anthropological study, trying to determine the changes in the lives of a people, a society and determining what factors affected those changed and how. It just seemed to me the right time. We've been partners for almost three years Booth, and it just seems the right time to look back."

"Well, I guess you're right, Bones. We've been partners for a long time. It's just strange that you would ask me, here and now." He was right. She could have asked him later tonight or some other time. However, she had asked him now and it was because of an intense desire, an extreme want, to know what his response would be. "I just wanted to know and I wanted to get the answer as soon as possible, it makes no sense for me to wait. It's just a question." She sounded a little too defensive for her liking, but Booth decided not to press her further on the issue, at least for now since they had already arrived at the crime scene.

"Alright, Bones. You're getting off easy now because we're already here. But I'll wheedle an answer out of you later." Then he smiled. He smiled that smile that he always gave her when she was being evasive or defensive. The sort of smile that made her smile at him back and then they would both look like smiling idiots to anyone that can see them. But in the smiles that they frequently exchanged, there came a hidden communication. One that said that everything is alright, that everything would be alright in the future no matter what happens.

They both exited the vehicle and walked out to the creek. Booth flashed his badge at a nearby police officer, signaling him to allow them passage through the yellow police line. They were approached by a wizened old man with white tufts of hair at either side of his head and bald on top. He wore a wrinkled suit and unpolished shoes and had a notebook out and seemed to be scribbling something as he walked towards them.

"I'm detective Carson Smith, D.C. Police. And you are?" He glanced up from his notes as he was introducing himself, but soon craned his head down to continue to scribble something on his notepad. Booth flashed him his FBI identification and answered, "I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth and this is my partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan. We're from the FBI." At the sound of the word, "FBI", detective Smith raised his head and looked at a little puzzled. "FBI, when did this become a federal case?" Booth replied, "When the body is unidentifiable from the onset. The FBI will handle this and should this fall into the jurisdiction of a state or local P.D. then we will to hand it over to you. But for now, we will take care of it, until we come to a determination."

The detective looked a little irritated at this. But he nodded his head and led them to the creek's embankment. "The body… or what's left of it anyway, was found here near the embankment. A jogger found it a few hours ago and called the police. Our boys don't know what to make of it yet…" Booth interjected, "That's why we have Dr. Brennan here, she can take a look at the remains and ship them out to a lab here in D.C. called the Jeffersonian and she can find out what to make of it, detective." The detective glanced at her and nodded and gestured to follow him, "Right this way, Dr. Brennan."

The skeleton looked washed up ashore on the embankment. Brennan retrieved her latex gloves from her bag and slowly put them on. "Did you or the jogger touch the body or move anything in the crime scene in anyway?" The detective looked at her strangely. "Of course not, we're professionals, doctor, and we follow proper procedure. The crime scene has been in no way contaminated and the body is exactly the way the jogger found it." She nodded and began her examination of the body. There was still some excess tissue and some organs in the body, but for the most part, it was sufficiently decomposed for her area of expertise to be of use.

"The victim is female, approximately twenty-four to thirty-two years of age. She has four cracked ribs and her spinal cord is broken." Booth removed his notepad from his coat pocket and began jotting the details that she was reciting. "What's the cause of death?" She examined the skeleton again, trying to look for any signs of an external force. "It seems that her back was severely beaten, probably by a blunt object. The ribs are broken from behind by blunt-force trauma. The assailant beat the victim so hard that the victim's spine snapped as her back was being beaten." Booth wrote all that she said on his notebook and nodded. "Alright, so this is a homicide. Bag and tag the entire skeleton and ship it out to the Jeffersonian. Right, Bones?" She nodded, "Also have the agents comb draw a sample of the water and collect some soil samples. It might help us see if she was dumped here or somewhere else, maybe even some other evidence leading us to the killer." Booth called over an officer and proceeded to relay her instructions to the officer. "Alright, Bones. We've done what we can here. I'll question the jogger tomorrow. It's getting late, let's head back and get something to eat before I take you back to the Jeffersonian, huh?"

"Alright," she replied with a nod. She was feeling hungry as well. She hadn't eaten in, she checked her watch: 10 o'clock, nearly 12 hours. She felt that a quick bite to eat would make her feel more ready to face the day and try and solve this case that they had. She walked with Booth back to the car and entered the passenger side. They both buckled in their seat belts and as Booth started the engine, he asked her a question. "Did you ever find out who gave you that rose, Bones?" The vehicle pulled out of the side road leading to the embankment and headed towards the main road and onto the highway. She thought it was a good question, she still hadn't. But she knew she'd figure it out. As Booth had said earlier, she always did.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Special Agent Seeley Booth has always prided himself on the fact that he was a man of principle. He was a man of integrity and of truth. He solved crimes by reading other people emotions and understanding those emotions so that he could come up with a working theory and suspects in a crime. As he and his partner, Doctor Temperance Brennan, were driving back to the inner city after performing a preliminary investigation of the body, he was questioning this very integrity that he purports to have. He had always believed that work and personal life should be kept separate, and he even told Bones that very fact. He drew an imaginary line between work and personal life and he had always thought that it would be that way.

He was wrong. He was precariously close to crossing that line. For the past few years, ever since he was partnered with Bones, he had begun to slowly, inch by inch, move closer to that line. Most of the time, he could put those feelings in a tiny box and store in a deep, dark and hidden place within his mind. That was not the case today, however. And it all started with her asking about, "us". To him, "us" meant Temperance and Seeley, two very different people and two very connected people. However, when Bones was talking about "us", it probably meant Bones and Booth and their partnership.

He knew from the moment that he first saw her that he was attracted to her, and that was no problem to him. He thought that he had seen many attractive people before and controlled himself, made himself feel detached. This was different however. He didn't calculate the amount of time that they would spend together as partners. But still, it was easy to control his attraction for Bones because he disliked her ideas, opinions and actions. Eventually, he moved on from that phase and acclimated to her mannerisms and opinions. Eventually he understood and respected her views and opinions, even though he disliked them. It seemed a little cold to him and he didn't like that. She was a beautiful woman and deserved to feel, to enjoy her life.

He didn't think that enjoying one's life meant stuck in an office doing paperwork or examining bones all day on an examination table. Even her vacations seemed to be work-related, examining bones. He wondered if she had ever taken a vacation just to enjoy herself. She would probably reply that examining bones was enjoying her self. To him, Bones needed to live a little. She needed to take time to enjoy herself and ease up a little when it came to work. He loved his job as much as the next guy, but he didn't let it rule his life like Bones seemingly did. That was why he started taking her out to the diner for lunch, for dinner. It was why he showed up in the middle of the night with take-out and beer and just talked about the stuff going on in their lives. It injected a bit of fun in her normally monotonous life of examining bones.

As he drove across the road and went up the onramp towards the main highway, he thought about how that objective of his had changed. Now, it was different. Where his original objective was to break the monotony of Bones' life, it was now because he enjoyed spending time with her. He enjoyed their talks with each other and their bickering and banter. He enjoyed her smiles and the little touches that she would make when she would playfully hit him or comfort him when he was down. She taught him that just because you were different, you didn't have to be treated differently. That was why he became more accepting of the squints, because he knew he shouldn't judge them, just as he didn't want to be judged by them, especially since they were all much more intelligent than he was.

As the vehicles speedily past by along the highway, he looked at Bones. And she was staring out the window, deep in thought. She looked as if she were silently contemplating something, in deep thought. Her eyebrows were knitted and her face had a look of passivity on it. He was tempted to snap her out of it, to call her, but he decided against it, especially since he was in a reflective mood himself.

He turned his back on the road and thought about how amazing it was that they were here. It seemed unlikely, to him, that an FBI agent who used his heart and a squint who used her mind would ever work together so well. At first he thought it would be a disaster and it was in the early days. He would quickly be angry with her atheistic views, feministic opinion on marriage and children and her clinical description of sex. But eventually he came to understand, accept and respect those parts of her. That was who she was. He might not like some of her opinions, but he respected them and he usually did voice his disagreement and back and forth they would go, arguing that matter. It soon became less about arguing than just about talking about their views, trying to integrate their own points into their mind. It allowed them to get to know each other more, to understand each other more.

He had for quite a while now that the line that he had made was crossed some time ago. He didn't know exactly when or where this line was crossed. But he knew that he thought about her more than as a partner now. And since that realization, he put those feelings in that little compartment so that it wouldn't affect his working relationship with Bones, for even though he had these feelings within him, he still valued their partnership greatly, perhaps even more so than the feelings that he had for her.

Before they got to the crime scene, Bones had been talking about changes. And he certainly felt those changes, perhaps even more acutely than she had, especially when it came to their partnership, since he had been the one actively trying to change her. Of course, he didn't want to change who she was and she hadn't. She was still the very independent and very opinionated and somewhat geeky, Temperance Brennan that he had always known. Still, she has grown softer and less hard around the edges. She has become more caring and less clinical, more human and less like a scientist. And he liked that he was the one who managed to change her for the better, not Sully or that fireman who killed his brother or her old professor. Him, and he took some pride in that as well.

"Bones, do you regret the changes that has happened since we became partners?" He had to ask, he didn't want her to resent him for changing her, albeit only a small part of her actually had changed and it was a change for the better. He didn't want her to have regrets about being a better person, at least in his eyes. She was silent and had her head turned away from him, but he could see her reflection from the window of the door and she looked contemplative. "No, Booth. I don't regret anything. In fact, I kind of like the way I am now." She smiled at him with that smile again. The one that made him do crazy things for her, the one that made him want to protect her from everything, just to see that smile again the next day. The one that made him feel that he wasn't all alone in this world.

He smiled at her too. "I'm glad. It took a lot of work on my part to get you to be a little more like… a woman, instead of a scientist or an anthropologist." She looked a little annoyed by that comment. "I worked hard too… and I don't appreciate the implication of your statement. I was a woman before I met you, very much a woman." She said that last part under her breath, but he heard it, and he concurred. She was very much a woman indeed. But it wasn't the physical attributes that he was talking about. It was her demeanor, her attitude towards certain things. "I know that you're a woman, Bones. Anyone can see that. What I'm talking about is your demeanor, how you carry yourself. You seemed more like a scientist before, cold, distant and unemotional. Now, you've changed. You're a little bit more sensitive now and little bit more caring than you were before. That's what I was talking about, Bones. It doesn't matter how well-structured you are, if you're unfeeling and unsociable."

What she said surprised him. "Thank you, Booth." He was astonished at the fact that she was thanking him. He didn't know why. "Why, Bones?" She lifted her head gazing up at the roof, obviously trying to think of a proper way to explain it to him. "Before you came, I was just living my life, I was just existing. Sure, I went out with some people and did go to social gatherings. But those either became merely a physical relationship or because I was required to attend." She became silent again, her face becoming contemplative. A gamut of emotions was probably running inside her mind now, which emotions Booth didn't know. "Now, even I can acknowledge that I have socially improved and I am no longer as awkward as I used to be. I can understand some pop culture references now. Although I may never be quite as adept at it as you or Angela might be, I think I can hold my own now."

Booth merely nodded, unable to say anything further. He agreed with her assessment that she had become a more socially knowledgeable person throughout the years that he had known her. He had noticed it, little by little. The changes that occurred within her merely accumulated and eventually all those changes made for a big change overall to her attitude. Though Booth partially agreed that she might never reach the level of himself or Angela, she could still go further, there are still so many things that are left to show her. He wanted to show her a great many things, how sex wasn't merely a biological function, how real, true love exists, how marriage isn't such an antiquated and useless institution and how having children wasn't the worst thing in the world.

He wanted to show her all that and more. Yet was this the right time, that was the question. Booth didn't know if Bones was ready. Sure she had come far, but this was a whole new ballgame for not only her, but for himself as well. He didn't know what moving into a new level of their relationship would entail or what the consequences might be. He was unsure on how to proceed, there were so many ways of tackling the situation and yet so few would work on Bones. Subtlety probably flew right over her head, so he thought that if he did try something, a direct or semi-direct approach would be best.

Still, he did not know whether this was the best time to broach this situation. It was a case after all and they had to attend to the victim's needs first, like informing the family. They needed to catch the criminal and exact justice for the victim so that she might rest in peace and that the family of the victims may feel at ease. However, he also felt that this time shouldn't wait. They still had some time in-between testing and interviewing the witness and all those investigative procedures that needed to be done. Booth realized the need for more probing on his part. He needed to know whether or not Brennan was ready for a change, although he himself didn't know if he was ready for this. He felt in his gut that this would work out, that he would be happy and he had learned to trust his gut an innumerable number of times and it hadn't failed him quite yet, so why should he stop listening to it now?

"Bones, I know a lot of things have changed. But I know a few things that haven't changed about you. You still don't believe in marriage and you still don't want to have children, am I right?" Bones nodded, "Yes, I have not changed my opinion on those two subjects. I still think that marriage is an antiquated institution and that a piece of paper shouldn't be the validation of two people's commitment together. As for having children, biologically I am not opposed to having children. It's just that… with all the bad things in this world, with all the injustice, suffering and malice, I wouldn't want my children to grow up in such an environment. It's just not worth it."

Booth took a moment to assimilate this. Yes, she has not changed her views on those two subjects. "Bones, I know you've told me all this before and I have said my opinion on it. But I still want to remind you now and then that it isn't that way. Marriage is more than just an institution, Bones. It's a solidification of your commitment. It isn't proof or validation as more of the next step of commitment. It's like the next stage, you know? It's like going from just a fan of something to being a member of a fan club."

Brennan looked piqued by the analogy. "What if I don't want to join the fan club? What if I just want to be a fan?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Brennan sat in her office, typing up her preliminary report for Booth while waiting for the skeleton and other trace evidence to arrive. She thought about the various subjects that had come up during their drive to and from the crime scene, especially that drive back. Booth's sudden desire to talk about marriage and children baffled her. Still, she still felt the same as she did as when she first met him. Although, the magnitude was different now, if before she was vehemently against marriage and children, bur now, given the right circumstances, she would not be that adverse to those two occurrences.

But the strange thing was that she was considering them with Booth in mind, of all people. She thought that maybe she was just being distracted and was letting her mind wander. She sometimes had some of these fantasies when her mind was left to its own devices. But right now, when there was a lull in the case, she was waiting for the body to come in, she indulged a little bit in her idyllic musings. She thought how the two of them would be together. She surmised, surprised a bit for it to be that way, it wouldn't be all that different from what she had now. It would probably be merely an extension of her current partnership with Booth. It was just in addition to that, there would be more physical intimacy. And there would be a deeper connection between than the one that they already had, deep as it already was.

She indulged in these flights of fancy so rarely in her life, knowing it was irrational to do so. However, she was human, as Booth had always said. And she hadn't started daydreaming until only a few times recently in the past few years. Still she could count the number of times that she had done it on one hand. That was how seldom she engaged these kinds of trivial pursuits. However, there were times that her mind did wander and this was one of those times. She could not fathom how Booth had always been in her sojourns into fantasy land. But if she analyzed it, she could see why. Booth had become a big part of her life. It was so big that she couldn't ever imagine how she could go back to the way things were, when she was just a forensic anthropologist dusting bones and identifying bodies ravaged by war or some other disaster.

It did fulfill her to a certain extent, of course. She loved giving the dead names and lending them a voice so that their loved ones can gain comfort and closure. But it wasn't until she was partnered with Booth and started solving crimes that she felt a fulfillment that she had never experienced before. It made her feel content that she was bringing justice to those that deserved it and helping families regain their lives. However, that wasn't all. It was more than helping families and catching criminals. It was more than about getting out of the lab and going out into the field. It was about Booth.

She could admit, in the deep recesses of her mind, that she cared about Booth, more than anyone else she had cared for in her life, even her dad and her brother. They had, until recently, been missing in her life for a long time. Add that to the fact that it was Booth who helped her find her family and she could understand with great clarity the feelings that she had for him. It was a gradual development. It wasn't some kind of moment where she just knew that there relationship had changed. Through time, it had become more than a partnership. It had evolved into something else altogether entirely, but she wasn't quite sure what it exactly was.

She didn't even understand her own feelings. She wasn't well versed in the science of human relationships, but even she could acknowledge that her feelings for Booth weren't completely of the friendship cum partnership variety. It was something more, but she couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was. What was he exactly to her? He wasn't merely a friend; that much she knew. But she wasn't in a relationship within, at least not the intimate kind. And yet what they do together were things that she had never done with anyone before. They talked about their lives, about family, mostly hers though, and they talked about a lot of other things.

With her lovers in the past, she hadn't talked to them much. She rationalized it as merely fulfilling her biological needs and had, therefore, eliminated the emotion behind the act. It wasn't merely some defense mechanism to keep others away, although it was partly that. It was also because she had made a conscious decision not to. She didn't want to get emotionally involved, for one reason or another, to those that she had slept with in the past, even Sully. Although in Sully's case, she was very close to doing a turnaround on her decision. But at the last minute, when he had asked her to go away with him on his sailing trip, she had decided not to. She had let him sail away on his boat and she had never looked back since then.

Now, this was different. Very much so in that this was something completely new, an experience that she had not felt yet in her very well-lived life. What's more is that her sources of information on this matter were pretty much dry save for Angela, to which she usually turned to when it came to these kinds of things. And she couldn't turn to her other confidante, Booth, for the most obvious of reasons; he was the subject of concern for her.

So that left Angela. Brennan was planning to tell her sometime later, maybe an hour before lunch. She figured Booth would ask her to lunch, so that time was out and the morning was slow anyway. It seemed like the transport to the Jeffersonian containing the bones and other pertinent evidence was the only thing that she had in her workload today.

After she had completed the preliminary report and printed it out, she completed some paperwork that was lying on her desk when she came in. After completing those errant forms, she glanced at her watch and it signaled her that it was time for her talk with Angela. She stood up and smoothened her knee-length brown skirt and adjusted her dark grey jacket that was draped over her crimson blouse. She headed out of her office with her black boots' heels emitting a 'clacking' sound over the linoleum floor of the Jeffersonian. She approached Angela's office and knocked on the door.

A faint voice from inside the room, beyond the glass door, told her to come in. She pushed in the cool glass door and as she headed inside, she saw Angela working on some kind of sketch on her desk. She seemed a little off-put though, as if something wasn't right. She was staring at the small sketch pad on top of her desk, her back turned, seemingly oblivious to the world while she continued to scrutinize the small pad. Brennan almost didn't want to interrupt Angela, especially since she hated being interrupted herself in anything that she was doing. However right now, it was important and she couldn't put it off until later, especially with Booth coming over in a little less than an hour.

So Brennan tried to catch Angela's attention using the old tried and trued method, clearing her throat. However, this produced no effect whatsoever and Angela continued to be oblivious to her environment. And so instead of the tried and true method of clearing her throat louder, she opted for a different approach, tapping her on the shoulder. This prompted Angela to jump from her chair a bit in surprise and utter a yelp of surprise.

"Sweetie, don't scare me like that, it's not good for my nerves." Angela stated after she got over her initial bout of surprise. She closed her sketch pad and tucked her pencil into the spine of the pad and turned to face Brennan. "Now, what's the problem?" Brennan didn't know exactly how Angela knew she had a problem, but she wouldn't let Angela know immediately that she did.

"What makes you say I have a problem?" She crossed her arms and looked at Angela with a passive look on her face. With anyone else, that look would have told them that they were crazy into thinking that Brennan might have had a problem. But Angela knew Brennan too well. Angela had known her for years and was her best friend and she could tell that her defensiveness gave her away. "You have a problem," she stated matter-of-factly and Brennan knew that she couldn't succeed in fooling Angela, at least not for long; she never had been able to. So she uncrossed her arms and sighed.

"It's about Booth," Brennan began. Angela looked intrigued, but gave no outward reaction save for the nod of her head indicating she should continue. But she could see the sparkle of excitement in Angela's eyes. She started to speak, but stopped again, seemingly unsure on how to begin or even what to say. "Throughout my entire partnership with Booth, I have always felt that he was my friend, a close friend. Now, I don't know." Angela's face had a worried look upon hearing those words. Angela touched her arm reassuringly, "Did Booth do something to you? Did he hurt you in anyway?"

"No, no. It's just that… I've always felt that our partnership wasn't the most conventional. It was unique, in a good way, of course." She fidgeted, pulling her fingers, exuding a sense of nervousness that was quite unusual for her. "I think… that I care for Booth, more than how someone would feel for their partner." Angela smiled at her words and rubbed her hands up and down Brennan's arm. "Sweetie, you're in love with him, that's perfectly natural. He's a good guy, he cares for his son, and he helped you get your father and brother back. He cares for you, that much is obvious. Not to mention the fact that he's totally hot." She smiled at Angela's last statement, but felt her rationality flaring up at the word "love".

"I don't 'love' him. Love is an irrational emotion that makes people do irrational things and I am not an irrational person. But I do admit that I care for him more than usual. I am not as naïve about emotions and people as most others think." Angela shook her head, but for what reason she could not discern. "I know, Bren. At least you've admitted that you care for him more than usual, that's a good first step. And you've improved so much from since when you met Booth. Still, when it comes to matters of the heart, you're no Einstein. You're more like, the tortoise in 'The Tortoise and the Hare' when it comes to these kinds of things."

"What is the relevance of a mammal and a reptile to what we're talking about?" Brennan had that confused look again on her face, why couldn't everyone talk like normal people and not with those weird pop-culture references that she usually didn't understand? Angela shook her head, "Never mind. The point is that you're getting there, even if it's at a slow pace. But we haven't gotten to your problem yet have we? So tell me, what's this problem all about?" Brennan breathed in slightly and looked quite tentative, a far cry from her usual confident and self-assured self. "My problem is what to do about it?" Angela looked surprised by her problem, as if it shouldn't have even been a problem.

"Sweetie, what do you mean what should you do about it?" Angela crossed her arms and looked pointedly at her, her eyes narrowing into tiny slits. "What do you think, you should do about it?" Brennan sat down on one of the chairs near Angela's desk and rested her hands on her lap. "I don't know. I'm confused. For one thing, I don't even know what he means to me. He's more than friend, but we're not intimate or involved with each other. In fact, we can't. There's always been this unspoken line between Booth and me, where we can't be involved with each other because of the various dangers that we are exposed to working."

Angela gave her a look, a look that subtly stated, 'what are you talking about?' "Bren, it doesn't matter whether you have line or a fifty-foot wall standing between you and Booth. You're still going to like him, heck even more than like him as you say." Brennan was about to reply to her remark when Angela cut her off, "Don't even bother denying it, honey. We're way past that stage now." With that, Brennan gave no verbal acknowledgement but nodded her assent for Angela to continue. "The problem here is that you love Booth. You love him more than you have loved anyone else in your life, except maybe your family." Brennan listened intently, with her eyes shimmering with unspoken emotion.

"And that scares you. Not because he might walk away from you, because he's proven time and time again that he wouldn't. Not because there's this line that you and Booth made up, because you guys have already crossed it, with all your hugs and subtle gestures. It's not even because you think love is irrational because if it were you would know that a lot less people would be in love because, contrary to your opinion, there are a lot of sensible, rational people out there." Angela was almost out of breath trying to explain the complexity of Brennan's emotions for Booth. But she hadn't yet gotten to the point that she wanted to drive at Brennan.

"He scares you because, for the first time in your life, you realized that your emotions have undermined your rationality and better judgment, that love has overridden your faculties and that is why your mind is running scared, because for the first time in your life, you allowed yourself to become human." Why was the truth so hard to hear, especially from other people, Brennan wondered. Her life was so easy before Booth, before he somehow, someway, despite all she had said and knew about the incompatibilities and differences between them, wheedled his way into heart, one that she didn't even knew she still had.

She was content, she got to examine Bones, giving the dead their names and identities back. She traveled to far-flung and exotic places where she also identified Bones, but she had enjoyed it. She had bestsellers in the New York Times and USA Today. She was relatively well-off, self-sufficient, independent and most of all, she had managed to lock her emotions inside a box, one that she had thought that she had tossed down the bottomless pit in her mind. But when she met Booth, he had managed to catch that box and open it little by little; exposing her emotions and making her feel vulnerable. She constantly talked about rationality and science. But in truth, it was merely a way for her to detach from the world so she wouldn't get hurt again. Angela was right when she said that Booth proved that he would never leave her, at least not willingly. But the abandonment by her parents did influence her decision to cut herself from the rest of the world.

Angela was right, she was afraid that Booth had made her feel utterly and completely vulnerable. The kind of vulnerability that she thought she would never have to feel again after she used reason and rationality as the basis for her decisions. It was why she had never allowed herself to feel with any of her former lovers. It was why she never had any long-standing friendships with anyone except Angela before she met Booth. The truth was, forensic anthropology was something had a double meaning within it for her. It allowed her to work with bones and those that were unidentified a long time ago. They were impersonal. There were no faces, no person to come into contact with, their family might have long forgotten them and moved on or were simply deceased. It was easy.

But she wanted to know more about people as well, and that was why she also had anthropology. Despite all her desire to cut herself off from other people, she wanted to know more about them, to know more about the reasons why her parents had left her one day, never hearing from them ever again. She had wanted to know why people lied, why they tried to hide themselves. But most of all she wanted to simply try and understand people better without having to form emotional attachments that could cause her further pain.

She looked at Angela and considered what she would say. Would she tell her the truth or lie or say something else or change the subject completely? She didn't know. But Brennan decided that this was Angela and she deserved to know the truth. "You're right," and the statement was punctuated by the look of realization on her face, an epiphany of sorts, one that she wondered why it took her so long for her to realize and understand despite her vast intellect. It was a perfect moment of clarity, one brought about by the passage of time until it had come to this tipping point. It was in this moment that she understood with perfect clarity the depths of her feelings for Seeley Booth.

"It's plain and simple, sweetie, you're in love with Booth and there's nothing you can do about it." Angela said it matter-of-factly, as if it was as plain as the light of day. "Ok, I get it, I get it." She acknowledged the fact that she was in love with Booth. What she didn't know was what to do about it or whether she should actually do anything about it. "So you finally admit it, eh? Well it sure took you a long time, honey, but welcome to lovesville, USA, Angela County, baby." Brennan laughed at her friend's enthusiasm. "Lovesville? Angela County? Very funny, Angela. But seriously, what do I do?"

"You should tell him, of course! Have a big ol' heart to heart with your FBI guy and hammer it through with him." Brennan was confused by Angela's language. "Why would I 'hammer' anything with him? We're not blacksmiths." Angela merely smiled her all-knowing smile. "Just go and tell him." But Brennan wasn't so sure. How could she be sure that this was love, especially with nothing to compare it to? She had to be sure that what she was feeling was that all-elusive feeling, love, and not merely endorphins swimming up her brain and giving off a chemical reaction. She also needed to discover the extent of his feelings for her, she had had enough pain in her life and she didn't want to be hurt anymore, hence her seclusion in science. Finally, she didn't want to jeopardize what she already had with Booth, a good partnership.

They had a good thing going. They caught the bag guys and helped the family of their victims to have closure. They brought justice to those who deserve it and freedom to those who were innocent. That bond that had initially brought them together was something she didn't want to lose. If she believed in God, she might have even thought that her partnership with Booth was blessing from heaven, if she believed.

Brennan voiced her concerns to Angela, to which she listened with all the ingenuous care that a friend would show. After her diatribe, Angela merely gave a small nod and put her finger under her chin and thought about what Brennan had said. "I think… that everything that you've told me is right. You're concerns are justified all except whether or not Booth has feelings for you." Brennan looked a little disconcerted for a split second before resuming her neutral façade, "How so," she inquired.

"Sweetie, any idiot could see that he's totally in love with you. Heck, I think even a baboon would notice it. The way he takes care of you, the way he always takes you out to lunch, the way he protects you and so much more. In fact, you two act like a couple already minus the kissing and hugging and the sex." Brennan took a moment to ponder on Angela's words. Angela was right in that she and Booth did do a lot of things together. She, herself, had already considered this and nodded. But was that love or something else?

"How can you be so sure that love is what he is feeling? Maybe it's just that he's concerned about me. Partners are supposed to be concerned about each other's welfare." Angela leaned on the table, placing her hands on the tabletop. She sighed and told her, "Concerned for each other's welfare, yes, going out of his way to find your dad, no." Brennan knew already the difference, but she wasn't convinced, at least not yet. She couldn't be sure until she had observed his interactions with her enough armed with this new found information.

"Bren, all you have to do is follow your heart. It knows the way. You only have to be willing to let it guide you." Brennan lowered her head for a few moments in contemplation. When she raised it again, there was a vulnerability there that Angela had rarely seen in her best friend.. "But what happens when I haven't listened to my heart for so long that I can't hear it anymore?" She said it in whisper, so softly that Angela almost didn't hear it. But she did.

"Oh honey, nobody really forgets how to listen to their heart. You just have to try. You listened to your heart when you were trapped by the grave digger, didn't you? You knew Booth would save you, no matter what. That's called listening to your heart, Bren." Brennan smiled at her friend's kind words. "Thanks, Ange, for being such a good friend to me" Angela smiled back, and took both of Brennan's hands in hers. "That's what friends are for, sweetie."

A slow knocking on the glass door to Angela's office made them turned their head. Booth was standing outside the doorway. He saw that he had caught their attention and waved his hand then pointed to his watch, indicating that it was lunch. She gave Angela one was look and before she got up to leave Angela asked her, "What will you do?" Brennan was silent, but her eyes looked firm and resolute. "What my heart tells me to." Angela had a twinkle in her eye at Brennan's words and merely replied, "Good girl."


	4. Chapter 4

Booth enjoyed eating with Bones

**Chapter 4**

Booth enjoyed eating with Bones. He always did for some inexplicable reason or another. That was why he always made it a habit to take her out to lunch and occasionally, when she didn't have any plans, took her out to dinner. It was almost always the same places, either at the diner or take-out at her place. They always went to her place, not because he didn't like to clean up – although he didn't, but because he felt… closer to her, at her apartment. Although when he first started the habit of showing up at her place with take-out, it was just because her place was much nicer than his and bigger, definitely bigger.

As he was staring down and playing with his fries, he looked at Bones from the corner of his eye and he watched her eat. He watched as her long, slender fingers picked up a piece of French fry and dabbed it a bit in ketchup. Now, he knew he was losing it if he got off looking at her putting ketchup on her fries. But he couldn't help looking at her still while she put that fry into her mouth and bit by bit chewed on the fry until it was wholly consumed by her.

He looked at her lips, they were very fine lips. So fine in fact that he could have sworn that they were the best looking set of lips he had ever seen in his life. They were perfect for kissing. Nice and full and pink, now he knew he was staring, but didn't care. He wondered how those lips would feel if it touched his, when he parted them and how she would react when his mouth ravished hers.

Then he was broken out of his spell by his partner waving her hand in front of his face, looking at him like he was a Martian or like he had grown a second head or something. And he suddenly realized that he must have certainly looked like a fool. "Booth, were you staring at me?" To which Booth gave a stupefied, "Uh… no. Of course not" He shook his head and took his eyes off her and looked at his fries and his burger… that wasn't touch nor were his fries.

She scrutinized him with her scrunched up eyebrows and her look of determination; the same one she got whenever she was determined was analyzing bones, trying to find its identity, trying to piece together its story – although she probably wouldn't put it that way. Then suddenly her eyes exploded with amusement and mirth. "You were staring at me," she had said matter-of-factly. He looked up from his eyes and saw that she had a smug look on her face. But it wasn't a look of derision. She had a smile on her face that could have lighted Alaska.

He loved those smiles, which was why he always did everything in his power so she always managed to smile that smile when he was with her. He couldn't help thinking, when she was like that, all loose and with a smile on her face, as if she hadn't a care in the world, she was beautiful. God she was beautiful, Booth thought to himself. And it was the same thought that had crossed his mind countless of times ever since their drive from the crime scene. What had brought on this sudden and, above all, constant reinforcement of her beauty? He couldn't understand it. Not that he didn't think about the fact that his partner was beautiful, but the fact that he was thinking about it so damn much was disconcerting to him.

It must have been the rose. Yes, definitely. There was no other explanation. He didn't even know why he gave her the rose. All he knew was he got a sudden impulse to buy it from a florist that opens very early near his apartment and lay it on top of her desk. It was that change, that desire to do something for her, something out of the ordinary that made him purchase that rose. Still, he was afraid. He was afraid of this thing between them. That was why he didn't leave a card or note or anything, for that matter, that would indicate the identity of the giver. He was afraid of what her reaction might be, if that would change anything between them for the worse. He knew she hated those kinds of emotions, that kind of vulnerability. And it gave him a sense of pride that he was one of the few people that she could vulnerable with. With him, she could let down all her defenses and show him the emotions behind the scientist, the woman that was starting to come out of her shell.

And he wanted to be the one to do that. The one to draw out the feelings that she thought she didn't have anymore. To help her understand the things that she had never understood before. It was like an amazing adventure, where the world of the old became new again, all because of her. So in that diner, it was perfect. They were together, she was smiling and all was right in the world. And so he smiled back, he couldn't have done anything else, and if it was even possible her smile got even wider. She looked at him with those azure-tinted eyes that held all the emotion that she had inside of her and he felt that this was his own heaven on earth.

He thought of her often this morning, moreso than usual in fact. As he filed his paperwork after escorting Bones back to the Jeffersonian, he thought of her, so much so that he had to take quick breaks every so often so that he could focus his mind on the task at hand. He thought about her during his ride over to take her to lunch, and he felt that he would crash into something because of the innumerable times that he was distracted by the thoughts of her. He was beginning to think that it was absurd. Despite his own feelings for her, he didn't think about her this often, this much in one day. Sure, he did think about his partner a lot of times, but it wasn't regularly. It's like he would think of her maybe for a few minutes in a day and then not at all. She was in his mind, but not at the forefront. Now she was, and it was all thanks probably to that stupid rose.

"What are you thinking about?" Her voice cut through the thoughts that had consumed his attention. What should he say? He was unsure, especially since the object of his thoughts was her. But, it was her and that was enough for him to tell her the truth. "You," he curtly replied. "Me?" She said incredulously. "Why were you thinking about me?" This time, Booth knew he couldn't tell the truth, not yet. So he opted for the safe route, truthful, but vague, responses. "About how we've changed, like you said before this morning, it's like things are different between us." Her features were schooled into one of avid concentration and he amended his statement. "It's not like its bad, it's just different." At that she nodded while he continued, "As each day passes, Bones, we change and we grow. I feel that throughout the years that we've been partners, that same change and growth applies to us."

"Of course it has, Booth. Anthropologically speaking, change happens to all cultures and civilizations. The ability of a civilization to adapt to those changes determines whether or not they will stand the passage of time." Booth could only nod and acknowledge that fact, but he wasn't quite satisfied that she understood what he was trying to say. "Yeah, Bones, but I'm not talking about civilizations here. I'm talking about two people, you and me. How things have changed around us and what we feel about those changes."

At this, she looked a little nervous. Her hands fidgeted with the napkin twisting it a little bit. Booth thought this was strange, he had never seen Temperance Brennan nervous about anything and certainly she didn't become nervous around him. He had seen her scared, happy, sad and angry, but never did he see her being nervous, so he tried to put her at ease.

"Bones, it's alright for us to be a little scared of change. Heck, even I'm a little freaked out because of it. But that doesn't mean we have to run away from it. Change can be good and we shouldn't turn our backs on a good thing." He may have said more than he should have already, but he was pretty certain that Bones wouldn't pick up on it. Still, something compelled him to continue. It was a sense that he couldn't just leave his words there. "We've changed, Bones." He took her hand in his and squeezed it, as if to emphasize the change that has happened between them. He looked into her eyes trying to communicate the feelings that he wanted her to know and yet could not reveal.

But the moment passed and he let go of her hand and he went back to staring at his fries. He grabbed his burger and took a bite out of it. While he chewed on it, Bones put her hand on his arm and started to speak. "I know we've changed Booth. I've seen it, observed it," and with a squeeze of his arm, she looked at him with an intense gaze. "I've felt it." He stared at her. Booth swallowed and put down his burger. He wiped his hands on a napkin acquired from the nearby dispenser. He was still staring at her, as if seeing something entirely new about her.

And in a voice, no louder than a whisper, he asked, "What do you feel?" Brennan's eyes conveyed so much emotion to him at that moment. Joy and sadness, anticipation and fear and another emotion, hidden within the mosaic of feelings presented to him by her eyes. He was unable to discern it, but it felt familiar, like the name of an old friend you couldn't remember. Her eyes were still on his, transfixed by something that he did not know and, at that moment, he didn't even care. All he cared about was her eyes.

She took in a breath and it seemed to Booth that this prolonged torment was going to last just a bit longer and it was torture. He had to know, he needed to know if she felt what he felt. If something could be born from all the looks, the hugs, the lunches, the dinners, the take-outs, the talks, the kiss and blossom into something beautiful. So he waited and finally, after he felt like he could endure it no more, she parted her lips.

"I care for you, Booth. More than I have ever cared for anyone in my life except for my parents and Russ. I care for you… more than a partner should… more than a friend should." Her words were thick with emotion, spoken tenderly, from the heart. Her hand gripped his tightly. Somehow during the ensuing silence, she had extricated her hand from his arm and moved it to his right hand. Booth, at first, felt numb. Then his heart soared and his insides exploded with joy. Of course, she hadn't said the "L" word, but he hadn't expected her to. Heck, he didn't even expect this entire thing to happen. For her to admit that she cared about him, more than friends, more than partners was a large and significant step for her and he acknowledged and accepted that.

"Bones… Temperance… I don't know what we have right now. What I do know is that this something that we need to explore. There are no guarantees here. I can't guarantee that you won't be hurt, but I can assure you that if you get hurt, I'll be hurt worse." He spoke honestly, knowing that saying anything further from the truth would scare her. "But I will never hurt you or leave you when we're together. I know you don't need protection and I know you can shoot as well as the rest of us, but I still want to keep you safe." He took a breath, uncertain of the tumultuous feelings that were crashing within him. What were they trying to say? He had relied on his gut for a long time and yet this time, his gut was giving him nothing.

"What I'm trying to say is that I want you to give us a chance, just like I want to give us a chance. We're good partners, good friends, but we could be so much more. We've already seen it, we just didn't recognize it." The kiss that they shared underneath the mistletoe went to the forefront of his mind. It became a vivid memory for him, seared into his mind's eye, an experience that he would never forget.

Bones nodded, "I'm willing to give it a try. It would just be like an experiment… to see if we're compatible with each other." Despite her clinical analysis of what the future might have in store for them he smiled at her. "Only you could make a relationship sound like a science project, Bones." She smiled back at him, with that smile of hers and it warmed his heart. Despite all these warm and fuzzy feelings, there was still something nagging in the very back of Booth's mind that was voiced only now.

"When did you cross the line Bones?" He knew that she knew what he was talking about. It was unspoken for a long time until the incident with Cam, back during the time when she and he were still involved. It was strange also that she would be willing to cross that line when she was so detached and clinical. She would have seen it as irrational for two people working together, partners in fact, to have a romantic relationship with each other. It would impair their judgment, compromise their working relationship. Even the possibility of that happening would have sent her running for the hills, and yet she was here with him.

"Just this morning, actually, I enlisted Angela's help. I talked to her before I came to my decision." She turned her to look outside the window gazing at the passers-by that littered the sidewalk. "This was a hard decision for me, Booth. In fact, if you were any other man, I would have just bottled up my feelings, walked away and forget about you. But you aren't just any other man, Booth. You're my friend, my partner. You became more to me than just another man, you became part of my life and I accept that." Booth's heart warmed at her confession. He felt the same way about her. It was amusing to think that he couldn't see where their partnership would go, no matter what or who got in the way, maybe it wasn't because he couldn't see, but more like he refused to see it.

"How about you, Booth? When did you cross the line?" Bones looked at him expectantly. But even he was unsure of his answer. When did he cross that line? During the time Sully was about to snatch her away from him? During the time that she was caught by the gravedigger? During the kiss that they shared in Christmas? He tried to recall all the times that they had together for the past few years. And he could only come up with one, definitive answer.

"Bones, I crossed the line the first moment I laid eyes on you." Brennan looked skeptical at his statement. "You expect me to believe that when you first saw me that we would be in this situation, without any prior knowledge of each other, our likes and dislikes, our interests or whether we were compatible with each other? I'm sorry Booth, but you know I don't believe in love at first sight." Booth could only smile, "I didn't mean love at first sight, Bones. And I saw certainly didn't think that we would end up in this situation. But somehow, someway, in the back of my mind, when I first met you, I knew that you would change my life, that you were something special. And I was right"

Bones wasn't satisfied with his answer and pressed on. "How did you know? Are you portraying yourself to be some kind of psychic now?" This time Booth didn't just smile, he laughed, a full-blown laugh. Bones could always make him laugh no matter what the circumstance. "No, Bones, it's complicated. Even I don't know exactly how, it's just a feeling you get. Like how I listen to my gut. It's just like what I said about making love, it's about two people trying to get as close to each other as possible, trying to feel a connection. It's irrational, it's illogical, but it's there. You don't know how or why. It just is, it's like the law of physics. You don't sense the laws of physics; you just know they're there."

"But there are mathematical proofs for the law of physics. These so-called feelings of yours don't have proofs." Booth nodded his head agreeing, "No, not objective proofs anyway. But when you feel it, that's when you know. It's more of a subjective truth. It's different from person to person, but the bottom line is the same. You just feel it, it doesn't need to be explained or quantified. It's just there." Brennan, to Booth's surprise, seemed to understand what he was saying.

"Alright, I can accept that." This time it was Booth's turn to look incredulous. "Really? Wow, this is two for two, Bones." Though Bones looked gave him a look of hurt, the humor in her eyes belied her true feelings. "It's just that… I've felt what you've said, Booth. That's why I agree. Like you said, it is a subjective experience and since I have experienced it, I can accept your words to be true." Booth was intrigued by her statement, what was this experience she was talking about? "What was it?" Bones gave him an evasive answer, "What is what, Booth?" He gave her a look, "What was the subjective experience you were talking about?" Brennan sighed resignedly.

"Us, Booth. I'm talking about us. This feeling that I have from you is different than anything else I've ever felt and I've felt it since the day we met as well. Although I don't share your view that you would change my life or that you were anything special. It just felt different. These things I cannot explain using logic and reason or science, but as you said it is a truth that you merely know, without proof, without evidence." He grinned from ear to ear and enveloped her hand with his own. She intertwined her fingers with his as a sign of acceptance of their new-found relationship.

"So, what now?" Brennan inquired. "Well, now I guess we go on with our lives. Do the things that we do. You can go back to examining the bones and I will go back to the FBI to fill out some reports and maybe talk to those that need to be apprised by our new relationship." Brennan furrowed her brows, obvious to Booth that there was something baffling her. "What's wrong, Bones?" Brennan tugged her hand away from Booth and went back to eating her fries as quick as she can, seeing that lunch was almost over. It was a good thing that she had already finished her burger.

"That's it Booth? How can this be any different from any other day when we talk? Shouldn't there be some changes that need to be addressed, some arrangements to be made? I'm sure that there are a lot of factors to consider and we haven't even begun to…" She was cut of by Booth's lips meeting hers. He was standing next to her now, having already finished his meal, while she remained seated, stunned at the suddenness of the kiss. But her bewilderment did not last long as she cupped his face and kissed him back. After a few more seconds, he released her lips and took a step back. "That's what's different, Bones." And she nodded dumbly, unable to speak or even think. He had done what most people and most situations couldn't do, render her speechless. And once again, he walked out the door. This time though, he was a little happier than when he had left her office this morning.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Brennan was examining the broken spinal cord of the victim. She was standing on the forensic bay in the Jeffersonian with the rest of the skeleton laid out on top of the examination table. It was only partially clean since it was so recently shipped to the Jeffersonian and as such, some parts of the skeleton still had the dark residue of swamp mud on them. The spinal cord wasn't completely severed, but the third, fourth and fifth thoracic vertebrae were beaten inwards, into the body, indicating that the attacker struck from behind. Moreover, there was no injury in the frontal rib cage, only in the back; this told Brennan that the attacker struck from behind multiple times, hitting the spinal column multiple times.

The vertebrae were almost crushed indicating a severe beating; the injury to the vertebrae was smooth with no trace marks, indicating a smooth, blunt object perhaps a baseball bat. But she dismissed the thought as too premature and lacking evidence. She held the spinal cord in her hands. It seemed strange to her how this approximately 17-inch collection of individual bones could be so vital to human life. One tiny break could cause severe complications for anyone, regardless of who they were.

Brennan paused in her observations as she realized that she was empathizing with the victim. She used to never do that before, but after a few years with Booth, she seemed to feel more for the victim rather than just clinically analyzing the victim's skeleton. Although not an unwelcome feeling, still she had to dismiss those kinds of thoughts from her mind. Not when she was analyzing, her mind told her. She had to be clinical and detached, focused objectively and solely on the evidence before her.

Still, it was much more difficult now than it was back then. A few years ago, she wouldn't have even cared what had happened before the flesh became bone. Her single-minded devotion to studying skeletons and bones, focusing on science and observable data, wouldn't have allowed her to feel for the person. To her, they were merely a collection of bones to study, catalogue and observe, no more, no less.

But now, it was different. She cared about the person behind the bones. The story that was woven within the fragments of the calcium compound mattered a whole lot more to her now. Although the scientific and the anthropological study of the bones still held great importance to her, it was nevertheless apparent that an emotional component had materialized from within the analysis and the investigation, at least that, she could admit to herself.

The rest of her team were on the edge of her vision, as she surreptitiously glanced at them one by one behind the cover of the spinal cord she was still holding. Her eyes merely flickered, glanced over them one by one, Dr. Jack Hodgins, a little bit of an eccentric, but a very good scientist and a loyal friend to those he trusts.

Dr. Zachary Addy, a genius of extraordinary caliber, an intelligence that rivaled her own merely untempered by experience and, despite his boyish appearance, someone that Brennan greatly respected.

Angela Montenegro, her best friend and her shoulder to cry on the rare times she did and the rare times when Booth wasn't there or when it was inappropriate to. She was one-in-a-million, because it took an extraordinary person to put up with her… quirks, and because Angela had stood by her, through thick and thin, Brennan knew she was an extraordinary person. Her most recent outburst only proved all the more how precious of a friend Angela was.

As her gaze lingered on Angela, she laid the spinal cord she had held on the examination table. Angela noticed her friend looking at her and gave Brennan a small smile and Brennan couldn't help but smile back. After a few moments she turned and proceeded to examine the next piece of bone that required her attention. But before she could even start, she was interrupted by the call of one, Dr. Camille Saroyan, who had just swiped her card and walked up the stairs onto the forensic bay.

"Excuse me, Doctor Brennan?" Dr. Camille Saroyan, or Cam as her friends called her, had initially gotten on the wrong foot with Brennan, thinking that she was unqualified as head of the forensic division of the Jeffersonian Institute. Brennan also felt a little jealous at first that Dr. Goodman had not given to her the post, especially since she was the best forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian and perhaps the entire West Coast. However, she had come to accept the presence of Dr. Saroyan and her abilities and eventually became a good friend of Brennan's.

"What are the preliminary results of your investigation so far?" Brennan recounted her initial findings about the spinal cord and the rib injuries to Cam who merely nodded as she listened to Brennan's explanation. "Well it seems like a start," although Brennan knew that it wasn't the best start as they did not have the murder weapon, the identity of the victim, nor any other useful information. Hopefully further information would come to light after the analysis Hodgins and Zach were conducting was completed that could aid the investigation in those matters, she thought.

"Anyway, you can let Zach and Hodgins do their stuff, you need to get to the Hoover Building. Booth is waiting for you, says he needs to show you something and then that you're going somewhere." Cam then turned and proceeded to talk with Hodgins and will presumably talk to Zach after him, probably asking them about the results of the tests they were running.

Brennan merely nodded and stepped off of the forensic bay. She took the short walk between the bay and her office and grabbed her purse as she walked in and turned off her computer. As she crossed the concrete hallways of the Jeffersonian, her heels clicking across the smooth marble floor, her thoughts once again turned to Booth. The examination and subsequent analysis of the bones brought in from the crime scene enabled her to deter the thoughts of Booth's actions yesterday evening from entering her consciousness.

But she couldn't deny the happiness that swelled in her heart, the joy that permeated her entire being because of Booth. It was strange because although she had had previous relationships before, none had ever given her this kind of happiness before. Maybe it was because Booth knew her so completely, that sometimes he knew her better than she knew herself. It was uncanny how he knew what she needed at the exactly the right time, every time.

The drive to the Hoover Building was short and she arrived in record time. She made her way to Booth's office situated in the middle-levels of the structure. As the elevator doors opened to Booth's floor, there was someone blocking the door with his huge frame. That someone was none other than Booth himself, who was currently talking on his cell phone with his back turned on the elevator.

"Yes, sir… I understand sir… I'll give you an update as soon as we have something, alright?" Brennan knew that Booth was probably talking to one of the deputy directors, probably concerning the case that they were working on right now. Knowing that the conversation was about to end, Brennan tapped Booth on the shoulder to get his attention.

Booth turned and saw her and she could have sworn that his eyes darkened a bit, almost imperceptibly, but she caught it. But as soon as it came, it was gone. He held a manila envelope with his free hand and with it, motioned a wait sign with his hand and pointed at his phone, signaling to her that the conversation was almost over. So she put the elevator on hold. It was lucky for her that Booth was the only one on the floor that was waiting for the elevator.

"Thank you, sir. It was nice talking to you too." And with that, he flipped his phone shut.

"Bones," he exclaimed with an exaggerated clap and a wide smile, "I was just coming to get you. What a coincidence!" He entered the elevator, which prompted Brennan to release the hold on the elevator and get it moving again. As the elevator doors closed, the directional indicator flashed the down sign, showing that there was no one on the top floors waiting for the elevator.

When the elevators doors completely shut, Booth began asking questions pertinent to the case such as any leads to the victim's identity or the murder weapon from the remains. Brennan merely responded that she had, as of yet, failed to find anything relevant to the investigation.

"You know, I was working on the skeleton when you called for me. So indirectly, it is partially your fault why we don't have any relevant information at the moment."

If Booth felt guilty diverting Brennan from her examination of the victim's skeleton, he didn't show it. In fact, he grinned. "Oh come on, Bones. Do you really want to stay cooped up in the lab all day and stare at some dead girl's skeleton?" Brennan gave him a look, and Booth promptly responded.

"On second thought, don't tell me Bones. I think I already know the answer". He promptly then handed her the manila envelope that he had been clutching in his hand as the elevator doors slid open to the parking garage underneath the Hoover building. It was a pretty smooth ride since no one else had hailed the elevator, which made for a fast trip.

"Anyway, you know that I wouldn't take you away from your precious lab if it weren't important." He said in a sardonic tone. "Witnesses say they saw someone suspicious loitering in the park around the same time frame that Hodgins gave for the time of death. That same guy was found loitering again on the same day we found t he body. It seemed suspicious so we checked it out."

As they walked to Booth's black FBI-standard SUV, Brennan retrieved the files from within the envelope and examined the FBI dossier meticulously compiled by Booth. "His name's Richard Samuels, he's a software technician employed by a local subsidiary of a tech firm based in Silicon Valley." Booth motioned to the picture in the file. Upon first inspection, Brennan's impression of the man was favorable. He actually reminded her of Zack a little bit.

Similar to Zack, Richard Samuels was also a prodigy, admitted to MIT when he was sixteen and graduated when he was nineteen, hired upon graduation by IntelliDef, a defense contractor specializing in cyber-security. It was a firm in which he had been working for six years. IntelliDef had big clients that included large corporations such as Procter and Gamble and Exxon-Mobil and foreign governments such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Japan. The Federal Government was also among its clients, particularly the Department of Defense, at least according to the dossier.

It had appeared that Samuels latest project from IntelliDef was working on a top-secret Defense Department cyber-security program aimed at preventing hackers and foreign governments from hacking into the Department of Defense's mainframes and servers.

"It seems that he was working on some pretty serious stuff, Booth. His latest project was for the Department of Defense. His previous projects include: 'Proprietary software development' for countries such as Russia and Poland and 'Cyber-terrorist defense systems development'." Brennan was surprised at the depth and breadth of the work done by Samuels. At the young age of twenty-five, he had managed to successfully take the lead role in developing sophisticated computer systems for the U.S. government.

"I know Bones. I had to call in a lot of favors to get the information in that file. It was pretty secret stuff, you know." As they reached Booth's car, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys and pressed the button to remove the panic alarm and open the doors. "But, I have friends in high places," Booth said with just a hint of playfulness that Brennan easily caught.

"Oh really now?" Brennan smiled as she placed the files on top of Booth's car. Booth grinned as well. "Yup," was his glib reply. He stepped closer to her and took her into his arms and kissed her, a passionate, searing kiss that threatened to leave her utterly breathless. After a few moments their kiss ended and she could finally resume her normal pace of breathing again, but Booth didn't let her go.

She looked into his eyes and hesitatingly asked a very simple question, one that would change the nature of their relationship forever. "What's going to happen now?" She almost whispered.

"Well, Bones, at work we still do the things we do. I solve crimes and you analyze bones and your team analyzes... other... stuff. We go out and investigate suspects and leads. Basically, it's the same thing." Booth stared at her with a piercing gaze that threatened to shake her to her very soul, at least if she believed in a soul. Brennan nodded at his words, with her arms still linked behind Booth's neck, and he continued.

"But this… we're together now, Bones. It's different. I know the possibility of this… not looking that good to others. There may be times when… one of us is hurt and we might make irrational decisions in matters that concern the both of us…" Brennan cut him off with a look. "Booth, I'm never irrational."

Booth merely shook his head, "Ok, ok… I might get irrational, for the both of us, if we ever get in danger. But you know what, Bones? Even before we were together, I worried about you. I worried that each day we go out and catch bad guys that something could happen to you. I worried each day that someone better than me could sweep you off your feet and take you away like Sully almost did. And I worry each day about whether or not you'd ever get tired of me and my… well, I know that I'm not as smart as you squints, ok?"

Brennan smiled at his confession and felt a small tug in her heart, so she sought to reassure him. "Booth, you know I worried too. I know that I may not have shown it, but I always felt great concern for your well-being. And I too, was concerned when you and your ex-girlfriend seemed to be getting back together." However, Brennan didn't know how to reassure Booth about Sully.

She really liked Sully, but that was the past, and though Brennan appreciated, respected and even studied the past, she knew the value and importance of looking toward the future. "Booth, I won't patronize you or tell you what you want to hear. I really, really liked Sully. And truth be told... I would probably still be with him if he didn't sail off into the unknown."

Booth didn't look reassured by her confession, but nodded his head in understanding. "But now... now I'm with you. I care about you, Booth, more than I've ever cared about anyone else in my life, except probably Russ and my Dad." Brennan closed her eyes and rested her forehead on Booth's.

She took a deep breath and continued, "You've become such a large part of my life, and right now, I'm scared because I have never let anyone be such a large part of my life." Her voice started getting weaker and was barely audible anymore, but she knew Booth could still hear her. "I don't want to lose you." Silent tears ran down her cheeks and Booth cupped her face and looked at her.

"You're not going to lose me, Temperance. No matter what happens, I will come back to you. I promise you." And as Booth used his thumbs to wipe away Brennan's tears, he was both humbled and amazed by the display of vulnerability that Brennan was revealing to him.

"You can't say that. Logically, there is no way you can absolutely guarantee that you won't leave. Circumstances change, people change, and we just don't know what can happen in the future. Just look at my parents and my brother, I didn't think they would leave. But they still did." Brennan explained. She turned her back on him, but he put his large hands on her shoulders.

"Bones, I know that." He turned her again so that she faced him.

"But what I'm saying is, that I will try my best to make this work. If I'm far away, I will try my best to get back to you. If I'm lost, I will try to find my way back to you and when everything else is going to hell, I know that I'll still have you to come back to. And you know Bones, and take from me because I know, the hope that you have something to go back to can allow people to do extraordinary things."

Brennan felt that he knew what he was saying, felt that this was something that kept him going during his time with the military fighting wars overseas. She couldn't dispute that fact. And while she still had reservations and a deep anxiety of the situation, she would try and face this like she had faced every other challenge in her life.

She wiped away the stray tears still in her eyes and smiled at Booth. She nodded and said she was fine now and that if they didn't get going they would be getting to IntelliDef, an excuse to think about everything that has happened as she didn't know whether Booth made an appointment or not. But knowing Booth, he probably did.

She went over to the passenger side of the Black SUV and climbed aboard. Booth started the engine and they were off to see their suspect and maybe find some sort of lead in this case. On the way there, silence permeated the vehicle.

It was a pleasant silence, unlike the uneasy silences that befall most serious conversations. One wherein they had the time and the opportunity to collect their thoughts and process the emotions that wracked them a few minutes past.

But the silence was broken by Booth, "Bones?" Brennan turned her head from her thoughts and looked at Booth. "Now that we're together," Booth gave her a small, but handsome smile. "Call me Seeley."


End file.
